


Princesses Don't Marry Smiths

by devertigozation



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Anastasia AU, F/M, Royalty, Tumblr Prompt, time frame: early twentieth century
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 09:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20654672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devertigozation/pseuds/devertigozation
Summary: for tumblr prompt: "Arya/Gendry, Anastasia AU"





	Princesses Don't Marry Smiths

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time since I watched Anastasia, so I apologize in advance for all the inaccuracies (do they have cars in the movie? I decided to go by the time frame I set myself in, which is about early/mid-1930s, so some time after the October revolution, which is 1917). 
> 
> I allowed myself to play with the plot, mixing Russian revolution with ASOIAF plot, so yeah. You've been warned.

Arya is the most frustrating person, Gendry despairs. He can appreciate her feisty temper, but, for Gods’ sake, there is a con that relies on her being princess-y. And, well, she isn’t. But, unlike his previous finds, she is the right age, she’s got near the right look - hair’s too short, and the build’s too tough, but, hopefully, the Lord (or is he a King?) of the North will think of all that as of the side effects of living away from the palace, with the peasants. 

Still, thankfully, she agrees to participate in his scheme. Gendry doesn’t feel too guilty about it - she’ll live like a princess if all goes according to the plan. And he doesn’t feel too bad for tricking that Lord/King of broken North, _he isn’t her real family anyway_.

So they board the train, Arya seems mad at him for some reason. Yet again, Gendry thinks. It’s like everything he says annoys her. But Gendry can’t help understanding her a bit, even though he doesn’t show it. Ever since he’s found her he’s been telling her to mind her manners and behave properly and has been teaching her the etiquette. So. Gendry would hate himself, too, in her place. He understands her annoyance, he hates monarchy and everything about it with more passion than anyone. 

There’s also probably the case of her new name which sends shivers down her body every time he says it. Her real name is Cat, but they both know that she needs to get used to the sound of another name. No one is looking for Cat of the Canals.

“So, what are you trying to get out of it, anyway?” - Gendry asks when they settle in the train cab. Arya seems to have a mind of her own, and, if Gendry’s being honest, he doesn’t think she is a girl who’d be that tempted by the princess kind of life to participate in the scheme. Though, money is usually the right answer to any question as to why poor folks do the things they do.

“Maybe I just want to leave the Canals,” - she snarks back. Gendry sighs. - “What’s with that to you? You only want money out of it.”

Something rubs wrong Gendry about it. 

“And how’s that different from what you want?” - he is genuinely not like that usually. He can hold his temper, but she presses on all his buttons.

“It’s you who speaks about revolution all the time, not me. But you still are too coward to do anything but to obey every lord’s whims.”

Gendry wants to answer, but he sees how tense she is.

“Are you alright, Cat?” - this might be the last time she’ll hear her true name.

She bares her teeth, and doesn’t reply, and keeps stubbornly looking through the window.

Gendry looks at her, comprehension filling him in - is she afraid? Though that is absurd. She is tougher than nails. 

And yet, the tales of North last couple of years are all about horrors of Winterfell. Ever since Ned Stark died (murdered, stubbornly insists unfortgetful North), every single story of the castle is about murders and betrayal. 

No one will touch Arya Stark, Gendry wants to tell her, but she probably knows it. Cat of the Canals, though, might have a reason to be nervous. But Gendry is absolutely sure that no one will suspect a thing.

She isn’t afraid, Gendry thinks. But she is nervous. 

***

“You look ridiculous,” - he says and immediately gets punched for stating the fact. Arya in a dress is somehow less princess-y than she is in her regular clothing. 

Sometimes Gendry will note that the way she holds her head up high, the line of her spine, the surprisingly gracious way she moves with - all that is something that could pass for uptight royal’s mannerisms. Though, of course, she has picked up her manners from fighting. 

Her hair is brushed, and looks even worse than her usual bird’s nest. Gendry sighs, thinking. 

_He remembers the girl. Vaguely. There were two girls, but he knew only one of them._ Would it be better to let Cat be as she is? 

How well would the current Lord really know the seed of the Stark? He is only a bastard, after all. In Gendry’s knowledge, bastards were raised far and away from high-borns, even if their fathers were Lords.

But then, Arya seems determined, even though that ruins the look of the dress like nothing else - girls in those dresses need to look spineless and eager to please. That isn’t Cat at all.

No one will think her a princess, but the breath of upcoming failure doesn’t seem to faze Gendry. A part of him says, _maybe that is for the better_.

Let another girl be a princess. 

But Arya already motions for him to join her in the car.

***

The Bastard, though right now he is the Lord of the North, extends his arms for him and Arya to come closer. The whisper of the court reaches Gendry, but he can’t quite make out what they are saying - “Is it really her?” or “It is really her.” No one called them a fraud, yet.

“Do you recognize your home, dearest Arya of House Stark?” - says Ramsay Bolton.

And Arya comes closer to her future husband, raises the hand in which something gleams under the lights, the lights that highlight her features just right for Gendry to see, and recognize at long last his lost friend, slashes Ramsay’s throat, and says, “Yes, I do.”

The court hushes in one intake of the breath. Arya Stark turns around and for the first time since Ned Stark’s death, the true Stark speaks under the roof of their castle: “My name is Arya Stark of Winterfell. And I’m home.”

***

“I’m here, my lady,” - Gendry stands straight.

“Don’t be all like that with me now,” - she bares her teeth. No wonder Gendry couldn’t recognize her at once. She is even more wolf, and not at all a princess.

“Pardon me, my lady,” - he says and she punches him. He laughs. Oh yes, it is really her.

But she turns away from him, and Gendry sees that she is still mad at him.

“What kind of man looks for a girl to marry Ramsay Bolton?” - she asks him, while turned away.

“I didn’t know,” - the reply leaves him immediately, even though he cringes inwardly about his pathetic need to make himself look good in her eyes.

But he didn’t. How could he? Every day in that castle brings out the new stories of Ramsay’s cruelties. Gendry thought… No one touches princesses. But Winterfell is a testament to the opposite.

Arya looks at him, with something like a desire to believe him. 

“Truly, Arya, I… I would’ve never… Not you or anyone, I swear,” - he makes his plea, if she so wishes. There is nothing but the truth in his words.

He also realizes that this is why she hadn’t told him who she really is - she thought he is a man who is looking to sell a girl to Ramsay.

“Yes, I know, you big goon, you didn’t even recognize me at all, have you?” - she says, rolling her eyes, letting the tension go.

He laughs, happy she believes him.

“I’ll be leaving you then,” - he says, swallowing the ‘my lady’ that begs to be said. She’s got a lot to do - firstly, find her siblings. 

It turns out she really is a princess, and Gendry knows that princesses don’t need the smiths or the con artists by them.

“Do you know what Hot Pie told me?” - Arya stops him as he turns to take his leave. Gendry inwardly curses. Hot Pie talks too much, but he was the one behind Arya’s absolutely terrible make-over. Gendry shouldn’t have left them alone.

“That you were looking for the lost princess for many years. Long before Ramsay offered the money.”

And he’s lost the hope somewhere along those years. The girl must’ve died, he decided, or he would’ve found her. And something inside him died as well. 

That’s why they let him inside Winterfell so easily - everyone knew that if there was anyone to find Arya Stark, it would be Gendry. That’s why everyone trusted his word on who the girl he brought along is.

Gendry makes a decision. Arya had her heroic moment, he can admit the truth at the very least.

“Princesses don’t care for smiths. But sometimes they notice the heroes who save them,” - he says, looking at Arya. She is grey-eyed, boyish, her hair a nest, and Gendry has fallen in love with her twice.

“You didn’t save me, don’t flatter yourself,” - she says, baring her teeth.

“Yes, I noticed,” - Gendry says back, irked. - “Not many chances of smith’s apprentice being of any use to a princess, is there?"

“It’s a good thing that after I find my siblings, I plan to abdicate the throne then,” - she replies back. - “Now who would have a use for smith’s apprentice?”

“I’m a con man,” - Gendry says, but he is a bit struck with what Arya’s said, and the implications of it - for North… and himself.

Arya rolls her eyes at his words, and says, “I think a partner is something both a smith and a con man might have a need for.”

“A partner,’ - Gendry says dumbly, but his mind works, even if slowly - ‘I think I’m being proposed to, now,’ is what it births.

“I’m not going to be a wife, Gendry,” - Arya says, exasperated with him.

But he laughs, feeling no usual rise of the temper with her, and moves without shame to hug and lift her. He thinks, he might never feel annoyed with her again. Until she kicks him in the knee.

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! Send me prompts if you want @ devertiwrites.tumblr.com


End file.
